Bringing Out the Dead Page #3

Synopsis: After a disheartening and haunting career wears him down, New York City paramedic Frank Pierce (Nicolas Cage) begins to collapse under the strain of saving lives and witnessing deaths. Through the course of a few nights, three co-workers (John Goodman, Ving Rhames, Tom Sizemore) accompany Pierce as he grasps for sanity and pushes to be fired. Before Pierce falls off the edge, he still has a hope when he forms a friendship with a victim's daughter (Patricia Arquette).
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Production: Paramount Pictures
  2 wins & 4 nominations.
 
IMDB:
6.8
Metacritic:
70
Rotten Tomatoes:
71%
R
Year:
1999
121 min
Website
537 Views


LARRY:

It's OK, Frank. We can call it. Eighty-

three.

Frank feels something strange, looks into Burke's pupils,

checks his neck pulse, wrist pulse. His eyes go to Larry:

FRANK:

No we can't. He's got a pulse.

LARRY:

No sh*t.

Larry checks the monitor: the green line up and down. Mary

senses a change in status:

MARY:

Is he going to be alright?

FRANK:

(not encouraging)

His heart's beating.

A distant siren signals the arrival of backup. Frank turns

to Larry:

FRANK (CONT'D)

Have 'em bring up a stretcher.

He looks from Mary back to Mr. Burke--breathing but comatose.

CUT TO:

INT. AMBULANCE--NIGHT

Larry climbing through the back doors, sitting in the jumpseat

at the stretcher's head as Frank hangs IV bags, replugs EKG

wires that have come loose.

Frank looks up, sees Mary entering; he takes her arm, turns

her toward the rear doors:

FRANK:

Help your family. Ride with your

mother and brother.

(she hesitates)

Help your family. They need you more.

Help yourself.

Mary steps out, stands in the red flashing light as Larry

closes the door, Frank climbs in the driver's seat.

CUT TO:

EXT. SECOND AVENUE--NIGHT

The EMS bus cruises up Second. Frank checks the side mirror:

John, Mary and Mrs. Burke pull behind in a black Ford. Seeing

their faces, Frank flips the lights and siren on. It's too

late to help Mr. Burke, but it's important to the family

that it look urgent. Frank watches passing lights, cars,

faces:

FRANK (V.O.)

I needed to concentrate because my

mind tended to wander on these short

trips. It was the neighborhood I

grew up in and where I had worked

most as a paramedic, and it held

more ghosts per square foot than any

other.

CUT TO:

EXT. OUR LADY OF MERCY--NIGHT

Larry and Frank's 13 Zebra ambulance lined up beside two

others outside a blazing "Emergency" sign on the crowded

side street.

Rate this script:3.5 / 4 votes

Paul Schrader

Paul Joseph Schrader is an American screenwriter, film director, and film critic. Schrader wrote or co-wrote screenplays for four Martin Scorsese films: Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ and Bringing Out the Dead. more…

All Paul Schrader scripts | Paul Schrader Scripts

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Submitted by shilobe on March 28, 2017

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